A Love Letter to 2023
Time to say goodbye to 2023? Good Riddance.
The 20s just keep flying by, and wouldn’t you know it: we’re looking at a decade almost halfway gone already. Perhaps that’s for the best—this decade has hardly been anything close to what you might call “good.” At this point, it might be for the best to just get to 2030 and start over. Won’t be long now.
At any rate, we should take this moment in late December to celebrate those pieces of this extremely difficult year that brought a little joy. I want to start by briefly recapping this newsletter… which was much quieter than I had planned for the year. As my life gets crazy, this newsletter, sadly, gets less crazy. I did, however, write an essay about an issue that has gotten a lot of attention (but not enough action) this year, the dangerous “Ed Tech” industry that has taken over American schools. Late breaking good news on that, by the way, as the Federal Trade Commission has just issued a draft of new rules that potentially will add a few teeth to the weak safeguards that children have when using for-profit “kids apps.”
Before critiquing the “Ed Tech” industry, at the very start of 2023, I took a moment to try to understand the Republican Party’s “leadership” in the House of Representatives. My effort to understand that whole scene was, as you might expect, rather futile. Since I wrote that piece back in January, things have, uh, not gotten much better in Congress. The sorry state of affairs in the House is thanks to, in no small part, the ongoing shenanigans of my very own representative, from the Pennsylvania 10th, the notorious Rep. Scott Perry. Here’s hoping my neighbors and I manage to elect someone new in 2024.
I look forward to doing a lot more writing on The Love Letter in 2024. Let me know if there’s something you’d like me to opine about—I’m always ready to have an opinion. Seriously, thanks for sticking with me this year and every year.
With that, let me ask you a question. Other than The Love Letter’s very quiet 2023, what were your favorite parts of this year that we all otherwise might prefer to forget? I’m about to run down my personal lists for the best TV, music, and podcasts from this year with a short bonus section on games. These lists are, of course, just my personal lists. I missed a lot of excellent distractions this year, so please tell me all about the things that I left off of these lists. I think that’s enough preamble—here we go!
My Most Loved Television Shows of 2023
(in roughly chronological order)
1. The Last Of Us (HBO, Season 1)
This may surprise those who know me well (because you know that I enjoy videogames very much), but I have never played the videogame The Last Of Us. No disrespect—I’m sure these games live up to their stellar reputation. (I simply have never owned a PlayStation.) I will admit, however, that for the decade or so that these games have received such acclaim, I have soothed my FOMO by saying to myself, “If they ever make a Last Of Us movie, I’ll watch that.” So, when this TV adaptation premiered, you can imagine that I got rather excited about it. The emotionally devastating first episode, however, almost led me to walk away. It’s just another zombie show, right? Well, I eventually decided to trust Craig Mazin, based on his powerful work with Chernobyl a few years ago. This show, like that earlier series, is a tour de force. Bella Ramsey takes the material she’s given and elevates it—and Pedro Pascal seals the deal with an finale this season that belongs in a category with the very best television episodes ever made. The only problem now: we’ll have to wait until 2025 to see more of this gripping story, told by these excellent storytellers.
2. Telemarketers (Limited series, HBO)
Rarely has a documentary television series found a way to utterly captivate me while still educating me. How many documentary TV series have I seen? Well, let me tell you. I’ve become something of a connoisseur of children’s television documentary series, having a second grader in the family will do that to a person. Most of the shows we watch together have an educational element, among some kid-friendly humor. I’ve seen some good ones, and some bad ones. Trust me when I tell you: Telemarketers brings the heat in every dimension. The story that these former telemarketing professionals tell has (not at all kid-friendly) laughs, terrifying moments where lives hang in the balance, political intrigue complete with righteous anger, and one of the most dynamic characters I’ve ever seen on television—fictional or otherwise. All of this comes through decades-old camcorder footage and present-day interviews with people working in thankless, exploitative industries. I hate to call this show entertaining. After all, it’s about real people enduring real suffering. This series gripped me like no other series this year, though. And, unlike most “true crime” documentaries (which are having quite a moment in 2023, right?), Telemarketers serves actual political activism on policy issues that have the potential to affect millions of people.
3. Succession (HBO, Season 4)
The most acclaimed television series of the year has already been written about by many people far more qualified than I to sing its praises. Nevertheless, I’ll just say it: this is quite obviously the best-made TV show not only of this year but for every one of its unforgettable four seasons. At once a comedy, and a drama, and—frankly—a documentary about the terrible excesses of American capitalism, this show found some kind of upper echelon of writing that perhaps has never been found before. The irony—as funny as Veep—and the drama—as powerful as The Sopranos—just tumble out of this show in every single scene. My only concern is that (like most excellent comedies) this show is so much a product of its moment (late 2010s) that it might not have the enduring cultural relevance of other culturally groundbreaking shows like Sex and the City or Breaking Bad. You know what would help cement its legacy? A spinoff. C’mon Jesse Armstrong, you know you want to do a Better Call Saul for the Succession Cinematic Universe! Please! (I already miss this show so much.)
4. Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+, Season 3)
Astute readers of this here newsletter, and astute knowers of this here author of this newsletter, will know that I did not very much care for Star Trek: Picard’s first two seasons of science fiction television. No, I most certainly did not. So, how could it be, then, that the third season of this television series made my list of the very best shows of 2023? Simple: the third season of this show basically ignored the first two seasons entirely, and instead it engaged with maximum nostalgia time-warp. Yes: the third season of Picard provided what Sir Patrick Stewart said that he would never deign to do: get the band back together for one last ride on the Enterprise. This season had many flaws, sure, but it also gave Sir Patrick, and Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner the grand finale that they deserve. For those keeping score at home, that makes Picard’s final season the third (and final?) grand finale for The Next Generation (after the 1994 TNG series finale, “All Good Things”—an all-time-great series finale, by the way—and the 2002 film Nemesis, which was the last film of the TNG era). Everyone agrees that Nemesis was terrible, and if anything the first two seasons of Picard seemed to be more of the same (i.e., terrible). All that to say: I feel very lucky as a life-long fan of TNG that Terry Matalas was given free reign to reunite these heroes and send them off in style.
5. Abbott Elementary (ABC, Season 2)
My child started attending a public school almost three years ago now, and my sister-in-law is a public school teacher so I feel that I have interacted enough with the American public school system to earn the right say to this: Quinta Brunson is a genius. Somehow, this show manages to be hilarious, heartwarming, and a razor-sharp critique of the systemic failures of American public schools all at the same time. I worried that the show might lose its touch after a nearly flawless first season. Nope: they’ve still got it. They’re threading the needle with every episode, and The Office of the 2020s seems poised to keep going for many more years. I just hope they find more ways to use the Philadelphia setting to return to the Boyz II Men jokes from the series premiere, so that there’s a legitimate excuse for a musical episode featuring surprise guest Boyz II Men in Season 3. (Fingers crossed!)
Honorable mentions: Barry (HBO, Season 4), Extrapolations (Limited series, Apple TV+), Star Trek: Lower Decks (Season 4, Paramount+), Telemarketers (Limited Series, HBO).
Really wanted to see but didn’t: The Bear (Season 1 and 2, Hulu), Beef (Season 1, Netflix), Slow Horses (Seasons 1 through 4, Apple TV+)
Best Show From the Archives: 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (Limited series, Apple TV+, 2021)
My Most Loved Music of 2023
1. Jon Batiste. World Music Radio. (Verve/Interscope)
Genius. Standout track: “Worship.”
2. Little Dragon. Slugs Of Love. (Ninja Tune)
Best since Rubberband. Standout track: “Glow (f/ Damon Albarn).”
3. Kelela. Raven. (Warp)
Worth the wait. Standout track: “On The Run.”
4. Cleo Sol. Heaven. & Gold. (Forever Living Originals)
Best kept secret in soul music. (Reviewed as a double album) Standout track: “Things Will Get Better.”
5. Janelle Monáe. The Age of Pleasure. (Wondaland/Atlantic)
No more tuxedo. Standout track: “The Rush (f/ Nia Long and Amaarae).”
Honorable Mentions: Prince and the New Power Generation. Diamonds And Pearls (2023 Super Deluxe Edition) (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.) Includes a never-before-released 1992 Rosie Gaines-featuring live performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
Haven’t Heard But Really Want to: Feist, Multitudes (Polydor), Meshell Ndegeocello, The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note). Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS (Geffen). Corinne Bailey Rae, Black Rainbows (Black Rainbows/Thirty Tigers).
My Most Loved Podcasts of 2023
I’m just going to list these with no comment, except to note that these podcasts are, generally speaking, sausage fests. Even the podcasts I listen to that include women and men as hosts, there’s a very clear pattern where the men talk a whole lot more than the women. All that to say: I want to find more excellent podcasts hosted by non-dudes, so let me know what I should listen to in 2024!
1. Michael Jackson: Think Twice (Audible/Wondery)
2. Talking Strategy, Making History (Dick Flacks & Daraka Larimore-Hall)
3. If Books Could Kill (Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri)
4. Slow Burn Season 8: Becoming Justice Thomas (Slate)
5. 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s (The Ringer)
Honorable mention: Well There’s Your Problem (Well There’s Your Podcasting Company)
My Most Loved Games of 2023
I didn’t really see enough new films or play enough new games to do justice to a list of recommendations. But I can’t resist writing a little bit about my favorite games. Especially this year when SO MANY new games made their debut. It’s a golden age of videogames, and the industry has never been more dynamic, creative, and profitable. So it’s rather criminal, in my view, that so many people who make games lost their jobs this year even as the videogame industry enjoyed such stratospheric success. This kind of austerity is not sustainable in any business, especially in a business that requires creativity. To state the obvious, artists need to be treated like human beings and not like cogs in a machine. This industry—one of the most profitable industries of them all—can afford to take better care of people.
So, now, look at these incredible games! I sometimes marvel at my seven-year-old as she expertly plays various all-time-great games, and I think about how lucky she is to have something like Super Mario Wonder in her formative years. I had to struggle with blowing into cartridges and editing system files in DOS to get my favorite games to even start up. Meanwhile, my kid has a Nintendo Switch fully loaded with dozens of fantastic games that just work every time. What a time to be alive! Here’s my personal top five of the games I played for the first time in 2023:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo Switch, Nintendo)
Picking a favorite from among the first three games on this list is basically impossible. Each one is very likely to be considered a classic and will remain beloved for many years to come. I’m putting Tears of the Kingdom on top mainly because of the near-perfection in technical craft that Nintendo displayed with this innovative and multifaceted game. Despite its enormous scope, and the 2015-era hardware that it runs on, this Zelda game puts just about every other major release in 2023 to shame in terms of technical perfection. The Ultrahand feature—Minecraft in Zelda—allows players to stitch together blocks of wood, pieces of trees, and magical objects such as fans, wheels, and, steering columns. What’s more, Ultrahand can be combined with Recall, which gives the player the ability to rewind an object in time. Yeah. And it all works flawlessly, and the end result is a game that is just as much fun to play as its all-time-great predecessor. How did they pull this off?? Meanwhile, all of these creative videogame shenanigans fit seamlessly within a genuinely moving story about Link’s quest to reunite with Zelda to defeat the evil Ganon. Now, the game isn’t perfect (Zelda is still, more or less, a damsel in distress even though she has her own storyline), but for me, the sheer level of craft on display with this title puts it at the top of the list for 2023. Nintendo sometimes makes some boneheaded decisions (especially on accessibility), but they still set the gold standard for videogames. Sequel or no, this is the best-made game this year. It was a captivating joy to play from start to… well, even though I’ve finished the main story, I will never be finished playing around in this beautiful version of Hyrule. This is my game of the year for 2023.
2. Baldur’s Gate 3 (Windows/PS5/Xbox, Larian Studios)
I think that the first computerized role-playing game (CRPG) that I played was the initial Final Fantasy release on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1987?). This was a game where you were given the illusion of choice—fight or flee?—as you moved through a fun little story about a group of adventurers in a high fantasy setting. Baldur’s Gate 3, the best CRPG of 2023, is in many ways based on the same idea as that eight-bit relic from four decades ago. On the other hand, there has never been a game quite like Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s hard to explain just how much this game changes the whole concept of what’s possible with a CRPG. In real life (IRL), I’ve been playing a weekly D&D game with a fantastic group of adventurers since the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. There’s nothing quite like gathering around a table (or a Zoom screen) with a group of fellow nerds, and then collectively telling D&D stories while rolling dice. It’s a great and rather unique feeling—collective storytelling mixed with game playing. BG3 comes closer than any other videogame I’ve ever played to capturing some of that feeling. At the heart of this remarkable game: complex characters and excellent writing all around. This game has more character development than entire seasons of good television series—and much of it is driven by decisions made by the player. Enabling the gameplay-focused character development is BG3’s remarkably faithful adaptation of the actual D&D ruleset. Beyond that, this game has a whole bunch of well-thought-out features that, in combination, give that gathering-around-the-table feeling. The narrator serves a role similar to a game manager (GM, aka dungeon master, DM). There are beautifully animated virtual dice rolls that meaningfully affect your character’s interactions with the game world. And—most of all—there are the constant player decisions which affect the story. Do you want to attack this stranger you just met, or try to trade with them—or both? Will you befriend this group of travelers, or steal from them? The game allows you to make those choices, even if the outcome might cut off a huge part of the scripted story. That’s just like a real game of D&D, when the GM might have prepared a long list of planned interactions and battles, but the players unexpectedly decide to turn left instead of right. Well then, the story is going to have to change! BG3, somehow, has so many alternative paths scripted into the game such that the illusion of player choice is less of an illusion than ever before. Despite some minor technical issues (the camera has been kinda janky for me, for example), this game is a monumental achievement. An unforgettable experience.
3. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo Switch, Nintendo)
I remember vividly the first moment—as formative a moment as any in my whole ridiculous life—the first time that I saw Super Mario Bros., the original Super Mario game (circa 1986). I was blown away that the screen could scroll from left to right, and that your character could transform. Touch the mushroom, and you tripled in size! My enduring interest in video games very much stems from early moments like this one, when I saw something that should be impossible, causing my mind to race with questions about what might happen the next time I turn on the console (or the computer). In many ways, I play games now in an effort to chase after the high of that moment—when I first saw Super Mario jump and scroll the screen. There haven’t been many moments as surprising as that in recent years (I’ve seen it all, folks), but Super Mario Bros. Wonder manages to remind me of that feeling not just once or twice but in every one of its levels. As usual, this Nintendo game displays exceptionally high levels of craft, with nary a misplaced pixel; and the level design is superb. It’s fun from start to finish, mixing nostalgia with true innovation and just the right level of challenge. This is a fantastic Mario game, with all the trappings, and it was worth the decade-long wait since its 2012 two-dimensional immediate predecessor. It’s been nearly four decades since Mario first became Super—and Nintendo is still blowing everyone’s minds, all these years later.
4. Thronefall (Windows, GrizzlyGames)
This little game, made by a three-person team, is a tower defense game with a very thoughtful strategic layer. I’ve been a fan of tower defense for many years, and the last time I got this hooked on one was probably 2007’s Desktop Tower Defense, a browser-based game (back when those were a thing). This one is, like a browser game, minimalist in its art, but the tactical and strategic depth keeps you coming back for more. It’s still in “early access,” so it will not be an official 2023 game, but this was one of my favorite distractions of the year.
5. Clank!: Catacombs (Dire Wolf, Paul Dennen)
Yes, this is a tabletop game. And, yes, it’s a 2022 release, but I first played it in 2023. (Just let me have this one!) This is a press-your-luck game where you and your friends take on the role of thieves trying to steal as much shiny treasure as possible from the titular catacombs. Getting treasure is as easy as pie until you meet the dragon… who will keep attacking you more and more the longer you keep digging around in the catacombs. To help you survive, you get to build a deck of cards by choosing from a rotating set of new cards on every turn. For example, you could pick up a new animal companion that might help you avoid the worst of a dragon attack. Even with help, though, the dragon will eventually defeat you, so be sure to run back out of the maze before the dragon finishes you off! Whoever pockets the most loot, while managing to escape the relentless dragon’s attacks, wins the game. It’s a fast-paced, satisfyingly strategic, and infinitely replayable tabletop game. Just a great time!
Really wanted to play, but didn’t: Too many games to even list this year. Here are a few in no particular order. Jedi Survivor, Against The Storm, Viewfinder, Spiritfall, Chants of Sennar, Starfield, Dredge, Metroid Prime: Remastered, Fire Emblem: Engage…
Best game from the archives: I played a lot of Tunic this year, a 2022 game that I finally got around to playing this year. It’s an adorable homage to A Link To The Past, one of the formative games of my youth. Even though it was too difficult for me to get all the way through it, this game punches well above its weight.
Thank you!
You’re still here? Thanks so much for sticking with me through this difficult year. Here’s to a much better 2024!